Czech Republic to vote in EU referendum

The Czech Republic opens a two-day referendum tomorrow on whether the country of 10 million people should join the European Union.

Opinion polls suggest a majority of Czechs support the idea – though those same surveys also suggest some misgivings.

Sixty-three per cent asked by the CVVM polling agency said they favoured joining the union, with the rest saying they were either against it or undecided.

President Vaclav Klaus has urged people to vote – but stopped well short of offering an endorsement of membership.

“It is a marriage of convenience,” he had said, “not a marriage of love.”

In a country that endured Nazi occupation and decades of communist rule, there is a reluctance to hand over the nation’s fate to outsiders – even if it means making the country an island in the centre of the continent.

Supporters say the only way for the country to ever stabilise its economy and move with the European mainstream is to join now.

Detractors say a tiny country in central Europe will be overshadowed by bigger members like Germany and France.

The binding referendum is the first ever held in the Czech Republic and has no turn-out requirement.

But an extremely low turn-out or anything less than a 50% “yes” vote may rob Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla’s government of the support he will need to force the country to accept the tough reforms needed for membership – and could endanger his government altogether.